Hired Luck

by Mel Todd

  What else is in that stuff? Can you activate magic like that? What is going on?

  My skin writhed with phantom sensations and I turned, looking to see what was driving me crazy. With the bright lights flashing red and yellow, the TV showing cartoons in huge screens up near the stage, and the people still milling around though more and more were streaming in, I couldn't see anything. I shook my head, swallowing to try and chase away the sensation of sharp spider feet crawling up and down my legs and arms. Part of me even thought I could feel the pin pricks of blood seeping from where they landed.

  You're imaging this. Focus. People need you.

  I crawled to the next person who was older, at least Marisol's age, with similar marks on the right side, just as if they were tattoos. But where a real tattoo rarely got bigger than a half-dollar coin around the temple, this covered their entire cheek, at least double the normal size. It was no secret they were the three mage symbols, though some were strong in multiple branches, and others empty. What confused me at first glance were the different colors, but as I moved from victim to victim, finding all of them mostly comatose and bleeding, it clicked. Red for chaos, blue for spirit, yellow for order.

  Primary colors. Does that mean anything?

  A person lying on the floor twitched and caught my attention and I headed that way. Before I reached them, I was yanked to my feet in one fast movement by a hand on my arm. I spun with the movement, ready to attack. My fist froze before it got very far as I looked into Alixant's furious face.

  "What the hell are you doing?"

  I looked at him, astonished. "What does it look like I'm doing? I'm dealing with the victims. Trying to figure out what happened and how we can stop it. I've already found one person who might survive." I yanked my arm away. "Now let me go. I need to get to them." I turned, intent on getting to the person I saw twitching. Maybe their marks were different. If we could find someone else where it didn't work, or maybe rubbed off.

  Before I had gotten more than a step away, my arm got jerked back and I spun, almost falling.

  "We don't have time for you to waste. They are either dead or they aren't. Either way, they aren't your problem and you can't do anything."

  I stared at him, unable to move as I processed what he said. The screams of people around us, my own fear and worry, created my own personal hell. The idea of standing her and doing nothing wasn't acceptable. The thought of anyone going through what I did the day Stevie died while I stood around would never happen.

  "Yes, I can. I can help these people." I started to say more, but he cut me off.

  "It doesn't matter. What matters is stopping this idiot—these people are dead and don't matter." His voice was harsh and angry over the sounds and I felt, more than saw people look at him, their eyes wide.

  The crawling feet feelings, the eyes on my back (both real and imagined), the sounds that pulled at my heart and soul, and the need to not have more people die on me, more people I couldn't help, all twisted together into a knife made just to hurt me. It sliced in like an arrow to my heart, my soul, my magic, and something broke.

  It slashed out of me and the world stopped. In perfect clarity I could see every person's shocked eyes, their mouths frozen open. I could feel the three rips between the planes, now so crystal clear, gaping like holes in my mind, the source of the unease. Power I didn't have, or didn't know I had, slammed into them and they sealed even as they spit something out. Time kicked back into gear and people screamed, diving to the floor as every electronic gadget in the place exploded in a shower of sparks.

  A warm, staticky ball of fur slammed into me and clung on, sharp points digging into my skin. The impact on my chest was enough to knock me to the ground. I felt blood welling up at the points where the creature had sunk its legs or claws into me. I didn't want to look. I knew it was about to eat me like every alien monster movie ever.

  This is not how I thought I'd die.

  The frantic thought did nothing to stem my tide of fear as I waited to die.

  And waited.

  When nothing happened and holding my breath became problematic, I opened my eyes. The ceiling of the hall resolved into a dark gaping maw. I blinked a few times, trying to figure out why it was so dark, with the open doors letting in just enough light to realize what was going on.

  Oh yeah, all the electronics blew.

  "What in the magical fuck was that?" Alixant's voice came from my right and I slowly turned my head to see the shadowy figured of him crawling to his feet, looking rumpled and out of sorts. All around him people were picking themselves up or crawling over to the prone victims.

  I watched him, still trying to figure out why I hadn't died. Shock? Maybe I was paralyzed by the creature’s venom. Either way, Alixant was not the last person I wanted to see before I died. It should have been Jo.

  He shook himself and still looked shocky. Weaving a little, he staggered over and stared down at me. At least I thought he was staring. I couldn't see his face, it was too dark, but more doors were being thrown open letting more light in along with the sounds of panicky people.

  I felt the creature on my chest twitch and the points of pain went deeper then contracted as it began to rumble.

  "Oh Merlins, it's going to eat me," I whimpered, not realizing it had been out loud until I heard my own voice. I wanted to twitch to shake it off, but I felt like I'd been paralyzed and that any movement would cause it to attack. My own fear combined to make it impossible to do more than hold still.

  "Munroe?" Alixan'ts voice had gone strangely flat.

  I couldn't answer. I just looked at him, almost ready to beg him to save me.

  "What is on your chest?"

  I blinked. Why wasn't he trying to save me? Or at the least, kill it. I knew he was a jerk, but I hadn't thought he'd leave me to just die without trying to do anything. A huge light panned over his face and the expression caught me. Not fear, not horror, but amused curiosity. I had to blink twice, wanting to study his face again, but the light had left, leaving me wondering if I'd really seen that.

  I swear if I die right here, I'll figure out how to come back and haunt him until he loses all his hair.

  Giving in to the inevitable, I slowly lifted my head and peered down to see what clung to my chest.

  Chapter 29

  We still don't know, even after decades of studying the planar rips at Area 51, exactly why they form. There are many theories, but nothing that has stood up to any hypothesis testing. The area 51 rips are stable and have only vanished once that we know of. But other rips can last seconds or years and always they open a gate to another realm with creatures that are not human and do not think or act like humans. Rips should be treated with the greatest caution. ~ Magic Explained.

  Bright green eyes that all but glowed in the dim light surrounded by red fur met my gaze. ~Mine!~ rang in my head in a voice that called forth nothing human, but screamed male and possessiveness. It held a timbre, a growl, that reminded me of a tiger’s chuffing, and it felt more alien than I could express. Yet it felt right.

  "Huh?" I levered up a bit more, looking at the creature on my chest. More lights were brought in, flashlights, spotlights, and all the doors were wide open now as well as the doors between the sections. The light revealed what looked for all the world like a kitten. Ears twitched back and forth even as claws sank deeper into me. From the force it had hit me with, I'd thought a monster sat on my chest but now I realized the weight on my chest was negligible. It was two pounds, maybe three at the most.

  Proof that imagination is way worse that reality.

  "I would say congratulations are in order but right now I need your ass up and moving. Once we figure this out, I'll follow up with what the hell that was." He fumbled for his phone, pulling out a dead lump of plastic. "Merlin's balls." He threw the useless piece of technology to the floor. I saw it as it bounced and suspected it was worse than what Jo had done to mine when she emerged.

  Emerged?

 
I shied away from that thought. I didn't have time to deal with it, but I sat up slowly pulling the kitten into my arms. At least I was pretty sure it was a kitten. I didn't have the time to look. I pulled it into the crook of my arm where it purred loudly enough that I had trouble hearing anything else—at least until Alixant started shouting.

  "Niall, Chris, Siab, where in the four planes of magic are you?" The shout had me cringing back, and the kitten uttered a little growl that was so cute I felt part of my heart melt.

  "Steven, I'm here. They're coming. What in the world?" Niall's voice grew softer as he approached us and looked around.

  "What I think happened can wait until we have time to talk. The perp was here. Spread out and look for him, her, it, whatever!" Alixant's frustration leaked through and he ran hands through his hair.

  Niall glared at him, a similar expression on his face. "Gladly, but I have no idea what or who I'm looking for and right now anyone would be lost in the crowd of people rushing out of here, not to mention all the people rushing in." Niall waved his hand at the doors and sure enough more staff, first responders, and even just curious people or con goers who thought they could help were coming in. It was more chaotic than it had been before anyone collapsed.

  "Merlin’s fuzzy dick," he muttered, and I stared at him. That had to be wrong. Who cursed like that?

  "Okay, fine. We'll have to glean what we can from the people. Your phone working?" he snapped out.

  "Yes." Niall pulled it from his coat as Chris and Siab came running up.

  "Good, most of the victims have their names on their badges, so start recording. Siab, you too. Chris, see if you can reconstruct what the hell happened in here. I suspect I know." He turned to give me a meaningful look and an almost envious look at the creature in my arms. "If you can go back far enough to see what made people collapse, do it. Offer as much as you can." He nodded at Chris's rather short hair.

  The story Bruce had told us back in college flashed through my mind and I had to fight to prevent a chuckle. No one would understand.

  "Will do," Chris said and backed away to the wall to do what Pattern archies did to recreate the past.

  I started to ask a question but heard a whimper. I spun and moved to another person on the floor, ignoring anything Alixant might have said. On my knees, I put the kitten between my legs and glanced down at it. "Stay. I need to work."

  I don't know what I expected, but the tiny creature wedged into the vee of my thighs curled up once again in a tight ball. Part of me was amazed by that, but the rest of me focused on the victim. This person was older, male, with paint mixed into his beard. I paused to looked closer. The gloves were still on my fingers and I touched the red on his cheek, then brought it up to my nose.

  What in the world?

  "Alixant!" I barked out the word, no doubt he'd be over in a minute. I was right.

  "What did you find?" He crouched beside me in a heartbeat, looking and sounding interested, whereas before he'd wanted to leave these people to die.

  I lifted my finger. "When I was looking at the victims originally, this was a paint that had turned caustic, searing into them, and it was oozing blood and ichor. From the reaction of one person, I surmised it was a catalyst agent triggered and worked through direct skin contact. But this?" I held the red substance up. "This is ketchup."

  "It's what?" He grabbed my finger and sniffed, looking at me with a frown pulling his brows tight together. "It is. What by Merlin?"

  "Wait a moment, watch the cat," I ordered as I half crawled, half walked on my hands and feet over to the first victim, the one with yellow on his face. I swiped and sniffed. "And this is mustard. This was the first person I saw. They had either red, yellow, or blue painted on their faces."

  He turned and lunged over to someone lying on the ground with blue on their face, or at least it looked blue in the lights that streamed in. Touching it carefully he brought it up to his nose then snorted out a laugh that had no humor in it. "This one is honey."

  "Well leave it on. The honey at least is good for the wound." I looked around and to my astonishment and relief people were moving, even the person at my feet. While not everyone was up, those in my immediate vicinity were.

  "I swear they all had some type of caustic chemical when I looked at them." I felt like I had to protest that I hadn't made such a stupid mistake. No one could have mixed up ketchup or mustard with the red and yellow substances that had been on their faces.

  "I believe you. I suspect the power wave transformed them into something else, something less toxic." He turned, watching a few people sitting up, wiping off the stuff. "Interesting—he didn't kill them this time. Does that mean he didn't need to kill them?" For a minute I thought he was going to ask me something then he spun and barked out, "Siab, Niall, Chris, get over here."

  How does that man achieve such volume?

  The idle thought made me smirk as I moved over and picked up the ball of fur that hadn't moved. I still wasn't sure about all of this but for right now, I felt better if it was in my arms. That knowledge made me even more uncomfortable, but I pushed it away.

  The three agents headed over and looked at him. "Chris, what did you see?"

  "Nothing specific. A wave transformed something in the paint to something else. I can sense the wave happening, but other than it being Transform magic, there isn't much else. The person who cast it was at the far side of the room but with so many people moving around, even that is lost. He, and yes, it is a man, hid in the curtains, preventing me from seeing anything."

  Chris turned to look at me, but in the shifting lights I couldn't tell what expression he had. "“Then Cori pushed something out from her, and everything changed. If you notice her hair is a good two inches shorter across the bottom. The rips snapped closed and the man bolted out the back." He rubbed a hand over his hair, and I noted that there were a few spots where I could see his scalp. "At this point there is too much movement for me to reconstruct without giving blood or more."

  "About what I thought, but definitely male?"

  "Yes."

  "Fine. Chris, Niall - I want full interviews of every victim you can get to talk to you. You know the basics, but ask them about the marks on their faces, why they got them and from whom. See if they are all mages. Ask why they got the marking they did. Collect contact information and then get those wounds treated."

  The two men nodded. "On it, boss."

  "What about me?" Siab looked at him and she looked a bit annoyed. Dressed in clothes so tight I knew every curve and roll of fat she had, not that she had many. Her braids created a waterfall effect down her back. I envied the look, wishing my hair could be braided like that. She had a notebook out with a messenger bag across her body.

  "I want you to get out of the con, at least out of this hotel. You've got sample bottles, right?" She nodded at him, but I detected a hint of annoyance in her expression. They'd only gone over that she should have a collection kit with her three times on Thursday. "Okay, get to the other hotels and look for anyone with this facial paint. There have to be a few that aren't here. Get samples and find out everything you can about where they got it. See why they weren't here and if they had been planning to come. Mage rank is important. I want to figure out how they were identified."

  Her eyes narrowed but she nodded and spun and headed out of the hall. It was rapidly getting crowded in here with more and more first responders but all I could do was feel an ache. That should be me helping, getting ready to get people to the hospital. The man we had been standing near was in a sitting position, a friend talking to him. Blood trickled down his cheek, but if they had any good nurses or even a doctor with magic, they should be able to prevent it from scarring.

  Alixant rotated his body, staring at everything, his eyes scanning, then he stopped and stared at me. The look made me take a step back and I found myself curving my body to protect the small creature in my arms.

  "And you," he said, his tone flat but scary at the same
time.

  "What about me?" I forced myself not to back up. The fact that he intimidated me made me angry. I could feel magic swirling in me, getting ready to lash out. I swallowed and forced it down. Right now, having Murphy's Curse go on a rampage could be catastrophic.

  "You are coming with me." He announced it the way I'd have said "Here's your coffee." It looked like for a minute he would grab me and drag me out by my arm, but something convinced him not to. Maybe it was my cold stare—I was tired of being manhandled. Or maybe it was the low soft growl from the fuzzy creature I held. Either way, he waved at the open doors and we started walking.

  Chapter 30

  No one knows where familiars come from. No probes ever sent into the rips have sent back any data and the familiars themselves seem to have a certain level of magic that prevents anything more than basic medical examination. While they are at least as intelligent as a teenager, they will almost never answer questions about their origin, at least not that anyone has ever shared. ~ Magic Explained

  It took us ten minutes to make it out of the hotel and the sound level dropped so fast I almost felt like a weight had been lifted off me. The bright sun seared my eyes after the darkness of the hotel. More lights had gone out than I realized.

  "This way," he said, striding down to the corner and flagging down a taxi. I raced to keep up with him, fighting a sudden dizziness. I had to blink to stop from seeing double. All I wanted was a cool place to sit, food, and something cold to drink.

  Before I could express this, or even figure out what was going on, he pulled me into a taxi. I didn't hear what he said, but a soft, "mrow," pulled my attention down to my arms. For the first time, I really looked at the creature in my arms. It had been too dark and too hectic to do more than hold it in the hotel.

  Pulling it forward, I sat it on my lap and stared at it. About the size of a guinea pig, it resembled a cat. Two ears covered with the same red fur flicked back and forth at the noise around us. The claws sank deeper into my thigh as the taxi pulled out, but it didn't leap away or look panicked. Instead, its eyes locked with mine. Bright green eyes with slitted pupils stared back at me. I carefully picked up one of his front paws and frowned at the long paws and thumb instead of the short stubby paws with claws I expected. I squeezed gently and the claw I expected extended - long, sharp, and more than capable of reaching deep into flesh.